Arcadia

Arcadia

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The Census reported that 55,502 people (98.5% of the population) lived in households, 639 (1.1%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 223 (0.4%) were institutionalized. There were 19,592 households, out of which 7,336 (37.4%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 11,703 (59.7%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 2,437 (12.4%) had a female householder with no husband present, 865 (4.4%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 469 (2.4%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 92 (0.5%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 3,855 households (19.7%) were made up of individuals and 1,926 (9.8%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.83. There were 15,005 families (76.6% of all households); the average family size was 3.26.

The population was spread out with 12,290 people (21.8%) under the age of 18, 4,102 people (7.3%) aged 18 to 24, 13,409 people (23.8%) aged 25 to 44, 17,349 people (30.8%) aged 45 to 64, and 9,214 people (16.3%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43.1 years. For every 100 females, there were 91.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.7 males.

There were 20,686 housing units at an average density of 1,858.0 per square mile (717.4/km²), of which 12,371 (63.1%) were owner-occupied, and 7,221 (36.9%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.1%; the rental vacancy rate was 6.7%. 37,000 people (65.6% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 18,502 people (32.8%) lived in rental housing
units.

These were the ten neighborhoods in Los Angeles County with the largest percentage of Asian residents, according to the 2000 census:[16]

Rancho period

The town's site became part of the Spanish Mission San Gabriel Arcángel lands in 1771. After Indian Reductions to become Mission Indians, the Tongva were known as the Gabrieliños after the Mission's name. and under whose control these people worked during the mission period in California. Currently there are 1,700 people self-identifying as members of the Tongva or Gabrieliño tribe.[19]

Lucky Baldwin

The rancho changed owners several times before being acquired by Gold Rush immigrant, businessman, and major regional land owner Elias Jackson "Lucky" Baldwin in 1875. Baldwin purchased 8,000 acres (32 km2) of Rancho Santa Anita for $200,000. Upon seeing the area, he gasped “By Gads! This is paradise!” Upon buying the land, Baldwin chose to make the area his home and immediately started erecting buildings and cultivating the land for farming, orchards, and ranches.[18] Baldwin built the Queen Anne Cottage for his fourth wife and himself in 1885-1886, now preserved within the Arboretum. In 1885, the main line of the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley Railroad, in which Baldwin was a stockholder, was opened through the ranch, making subdivision of part of the land into a town site practical. Later, this rail line became a Santa Fe Railroad line. In 1889, on a site just north of the corner of First Avenue and St. Joseph Street, adjacent to the Santa Fe tracks, Baldwin opened the 35 room Hotel Oakwood to be the centerpiece of his new town. The first liquor license was issued to his oldest daughter Clara Baldwin. This becomes more significant when one understands that Pasadena, which borders Arcadia, was dry from its founding in 1886. In 1890 the Rancho Santa Anita Depot was built serve Lucky Baldwin's interests, and the people and needs of the town.

20th century until World War II

By the turn of the 20th century, Arcadia had a population nearing 500 and an economy that was becoming based on entertainment, sporting, hospitality, and gambling opportunities. The latter including an early version of the Santa Anita race track.[18] Baldwin oversaw the incorporation of Arcadia into a city in 1903, and was its first mayor.

Anoakia

Anita Baldwin's "Anoakia" mansion and gardens in 1915

In 1913 Anita Baldwin, Lucky's daughter, built a 50-room mansion on 19 acres (77,000 m2) of the Baldwin Ranch she inherited from him, and named it "Anoakia" (Anita and oak).[21] The 17,000-square-foot residence was in the Italian Renaissance Revival style, with murals by Maynard Dixon.[21][22][23] The estate had a significant Greek Revival stylecolonnaded "Parthenon" bathhouse/gymnasium beside a large pool, an apiary and aviaries, kennels and stables, tennis courts and pergolas, and preserved the native oak woodlands.[21]

After her death in 1939 the estate became the Anoakia School for Girls, which became the coeducational Anoakia School in 1967, then moved to Duarte in 1990 as the Anita Oaks School.[23][24] The school owner's efforts to develop the property into a village of homes with the old mansion as its centerpiece were rejected by the city.[22] After an extended debate, with local citizens and regional preservationists efforts to preserve the historic main house, the city council voted to approve demolition for a real estate development by new owners in 1999.[22] The "Anoakia" mansion, all other significant estate structures and outbuildings, garden features, and numerous California sycamore and Coast live oak trees were demolished for 31 luxury home sites in 2000.[21] Some of the mansion's architectural elements were salvaged and removed. Only the gatehouse, on the estate's former southeast corner at Foothill and Baldwin, and the perimeter walls remain after the "Anoakia Estates" development was built.[21]

During World War I, Arcadia was home to the U.S. Army's Ross Field Balloon School, at the present-day Santa Anita Park site. Army observers were trained here in techniques to observe enemy activity from hot air balloons.

After World War I, Arcadia's population grew and local businesses included many chicken ranches and other agricultural activities. During the 1920s and 1930s, Arcadia began its transition to the residential city that it is today, as small farms and chicken ranches gave way to homes and numerous civic improvements, including a city library and a city hall. Scenes of many of Arcadia's interesting older sites can be viewed in a series of historic watercolors painted by local artists Edna Lenz and Justine Wishek.[25] The city was on historic U.S. Route 66 in California, present-day Colorado Boulevard, with businesses serving travelers on it.

Santa Anita Assembly Center

In 1942 during World War II, Arcadia's Santa Anita Park racetrack became the site of the Santa Anita Assembly Center for Japanese AmericanU.S. citizens, where they were processed, after being removed from their homes and communities for forced relocation and internment under President Franklin Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066. The Civilian Assembly Center at the racetrack became the largest and longest operating one of the eighteen, all were holding citizens until the Relocation Center camps were completed in interior areas of California and other states.[26] More than 18,000 persons resided at the racetrack in primitive conditions.[26][27] 400 temporary tarpaper barracks were constructed on the racetrack grounds to house many of the prisoners, where they lived three families per unit. 8,500 prisoners lived in converted horse stalls.[26] Bachelors were housed in the grandstand building.[26] They took group showers, lacked private bathrooms, and were under 24-hour armed surveillance. Conditions were extremely difficult, with each resident being given an “Army manufacture bed, one blanket and one straw tick.”[28] The Assembly Center held people from late March through the end of October 1942, when the internees were relocated inland to permanent internment camps at Manzanar and Tule Lake in California, and eight others in Western states and Arkansas.

At the time, Arcadia's civic leaders were very vocal in their support of the Japanese American relocation internment policies of the federal government. The Santa Anita Assembly Center site is California Historical Landmark #934.[29]

Postwar period

Arcadia largely grew up as the well-to-do suburb of neighboring Pasadena, with many early residents being the sons and daughters of long established Southern California families. A large tract of estate homes was developed by Harry Chandler, the scion of the Los Angeles Times, who lived in adjacent Sierra Madre, California. The city became the residence of choice for many corporate chief executives, including those in aerospace, the horse racing industry, and finance.

The postwar boom saw Arcadia grow rapidly into a suburban residential community, with many of the chicken ranches being subdivided into home lots. Between 1940 and 1950, the population grew by more than two and a half times. The housing boom continued through the 1950s and 1960s and along with that growth came the necessary infrastructure of schools, commercial buildings, and expanded city services.

During the postwar boom, a modern commercial district developed along Baldwin Avenue south of Huntington Drive in west Arcadia. In 1951 this strip, called the West Arcadia Hub, was anchored by a new, locally owned Hinshaw's department store. This was the first large department store to be built in Arcadia, and the largest in the western San Gabriel Valley outside the city of Pasadena. This development marked the beginning of Arcadia's gradual transformation into one of the leading shopping districts of the San Gabriel Valley.

Until a Supreme Court ruling in 1965, every property sale contract within the borders of Arcadia had to include a provision that the new owner could only sell the property to a white Protestant. However, these clauses had been ruled unenforceable by the Supreme Court's ruling in 1948's Shelley v. Kraemer, and many non-Protestant families did, in fact, own homes and live in Arcadia well before 1965.

In October 1975, the Santa Anita Fashion Park was opened to the public on the corner of Baldwin Avenue and Huntington Drive, on part of the former Santa Anita Assembly Center site. The center court featured a very large "Blue head" by artist Roy Lichtenstein, that was later removed. The mall expanded in 2004, and renamed Westfield Santa Anita. It was affected by the late 2000s Great Recession, but continues to attract business.

James Dobson, a previous Arcadia resident, founded the nonprofit Christian ministry Focus on the Family in the city in 1977. Its original office still stands on the south side of Foothill Boulevard. Focus grew to larger quarters in the city, and in intervening years expanded to Monrovia for warehouse space before moving out of Arcadia completely in 1990. Focus on the Family is now based in Colorado Springs, Colorado; but still has thousands of members in Arcadia.

In the late 1990s, Native American activists threatened to sue Arcadia High School over its use of the "Apache" mascot. The high school's use of Native American symbols, including an "Apache Joe" mascot, the Pow Wow school newspaper, the "Apache News" television program, the "Smoke Signals" news bulletin boards, the school's auxiliary team's marching "Apache Princesses" and opposing football team fans' "Scalp the Apaches" signs were viewed by these Native American activists and many Arcadia community members as offensive. Other residents, and some school alumni with Native American ancestry, did not object to their use.[citation needed] The school consulted with some Native American groups, made some concessions, but did not change the mascot.[citation needed] Arcadia High School has a yearly charity drive for the Apache community.[citation needed]

Arcadia's wealthier enclaves are mainly north of the Foothill Freeway and governed by homeowners' associations. Skyrocketing prices of these new homes are strengthening the city's reputation as the new "Beverly Hills" for Chinese families. Previously, San Marino was known as the pinnacle of the Chinese dream; however, homes in Arcadia are now being constructed to appeal to that same demographic.[30]

Economy

Arcadia's economy is driven by wholesale trade, retail trade, manufacturing, health care and social assistance, arts, entertainment, and recreation. Revenue from the Santa Anita Racetrack has long supported capital improvements for the City of Arcadia, resulting in the City having very little bonded indebtedness.

The Westfield Santa Anita mall (formerly the Santa Anita Fashion Park) is a major shopping center in the city. In 2005, the Westfield Santa Anita completed its first phase of expansion featuring a new food court, Sport Chalet, Dave & Busters, numerous smaller retailers, various full-service eateries in an area known as Restaurant Square, and a 16-screen AMC Theatres. In 2008, expansion of the mall continued as the Promenade outdoor structure was completed, with new high-end retailers such as Coach and Talbots.

The proposal by Caruso Affiliated and Magna Entertainment to build a second large shopping mall adjacent to Westfield Santa Anita on the grounds of the Santa Anita Park racetrack will not be coming into fruition anytime soon. The controversial project, known as "The Shops at Santa Anita", had prompted heated debate among some residents in the community and enormous spending by corporate interests in favor and against the project. If the second mall had been built, the combined size of the two malls will make Arcadia the largest retail shopping district in Los Angeles County. "The Shops at Santa Anita", which require City Council approval, would have included signature retail, restaurants, and landscaping featuring a large decorative water display, all situated in what is the race track's southern parking area, severely curtailing race track parking property.

Top employers

According to the City's 2017 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report,[31] the top private employers in the city are:

Government

The city has a council-manager government with a five-member city council, Mayor Tom Beck, Mayor Pro Tem Peter Amundson, Roger Chandler, Sho Tay, and April Verlato. Arcadia is a charter city governed by a five-member City Council (which also serves as the City's Redevelopment Agency), with each member serving a four-year term. The Council elects from its membership a Mayor to serve as its presiding officer for a one-year term.[32]

Effective with the 2018 elections, Arcadia voters elect a City Council member by geographical district instead of at-large.

Education

For primary and secondary education the city is served by the Arcadia Unified School District. Reading scores for the AUSD are 76.6% higher than the state average and math scores are 67.9% higher than the state average.[38] It is estimated that 88% of Arcadia students are at public schools and 12% in private and/or parochial institutions.

Arcadia Unified School District[38] has one highly ranked and prestigious high school, Arcadia High School. It is among the few public high schools in California to receive a distinguished GreatSchools Rating of 10 out of 10.[39] There are three middle schools, and six elementary schools, two which are winners in the United States Department of Education's Blue Ribbon Schools program.[40] Approximately five percent of California schools are awarded this honor each year following a rigorous selection process. Eligibility is based on federal and state criteria including the No Child Left Behind program, Academic Performance Index (API), and Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). The requirements are many and strict, and are based on such areas as a strong curriculum, solid library media services, professional teachers, and counseling programs at all grade levels.[41] In 2010, BusinessWeek ranked Arcadia as the best place to raise children in the state of California for the second year in a row, citing the city's excellent school system as one of the factors in addition to the low crime rate.[42]

High school

The Academic Performance Index measures the academic performance and growth of schools on a variety of points. Arcadia High School scored 890,[43] making it the highest performing large high school in California.[44] In 2010, Arcadia High had 29 National Merit Award finalists.[45] Arcadia is also home to the two-time National Championship boys cross-country team (2010 and 2012).

Hospital

Located at 300 W. Huntington Drive, Methodist Hospital[46] sits on 22 acres (89,000 m2) of land. The 460-bed hospital opened in Arcadia in 1957, after moving from downtown Los Angeles. Methodist was the state's first community hospital to have a psychiatric unit. Its nursery school was one of the first corporate daycare facilities in the U.S. It was an Official Hospital of the 1984 Olympic Games.

To keep up with the changing needs of the community, several upgrades have been made to the original facility. In 1998, the Berger Tower was completed, adding 169 beds. Methodist underwent a major renovation and expansion in 2006, and in the fall of 2011, a new five-story patient tower and new emergency department were opened.

The Methodist Hospital School of Nursing

A School of Nursing opened at the hospital in 1915, with a class of 30 students. Ten years later, a residence was built to accommodate 150 graduate and student nurses. This four-story brick building, known as Philomena Hall, was connected to the hospital by an underground corridor and provided accommodations, classrooms and a gymnasium for the nurses. Beginning in 1944 (after a nine-year school closure), additional housing for nurses was provided in a refurbished residential house adjacent to Philomena Hall. After more than 40 years of operation and the graduation of hundreds of talented young nurses, the School of Nursing closed. Times had changed, and the practice of nursing education had moved into the domain of the formal education system. The school was phased out in 1958 with the graduation of the last nursing class.[47]

In popular culture

U.S. Route 66, immortalized in song and literature, passes through Arcadia, on Huntington Drive in Downtown Arcadia, before turning off onto Colorado Place and then Colorado Street. After intersecting the 210 freeway, Route 66 runs parallel to and south of the freeway, cutting across the middle section of Arcadia.

The city is mentioned by Jack Kerouac in his novel On the Road: Sal, the protagonist, is put off by "preppy" teens when he stops for food at a local drive-in restaurant with a young Mexican woman. The vignette demonstrates the culture clash between the "Beatnik" way of life and that of 1950s conservative America.

In a motel located in Arcadia across the street north-east from Santa Anita Racetrack, author Hunter S. Thompson wrote much of his novel, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in the 1970s. In Michael Cunningham's novel The Hours, Laura Brown mentions that she heard of a man who died in nearby Arcadia.

The McDonald brothers, who later began the McDonald's hamburger restaurant chain, opened their first restaurant, The Airdrome, near Monrovia Airport, on the Arcadia/Monrovia border in 1937.[48][49] The restaurant was located on historic Route 66, now Huntington Drive, but later moved to San Bernardino, California in 1940.

Filming locations

Many films on location (including Tarzan and the Bing Crosby On the Road movies), television series, most notably Fantasy Island[50] were filmed in Arcadia. A popular visiting site is the house with the bell tower, where Tattoo rang the bell, is the Queen Anne Cottage, located in the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden in Arcadia.[51] The plane, "arriving" with the guests, was filmed in the lagoon behind the Queen Anne Cottage.[50] Occasionally, outdoor scenes and commercials are filmed at the Arboretum have been filmed on the grounds[52] of the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden.

The Santa Anita Park Racetrack is another popular filming locations. The true story film Seabiscuit (2003) was filmed and takes place at the Santa Anita race track. A commercial for Claritin allergy medicine, a Lexus commercial, and three episodes of Grey's Anatomy have used it as a location ("Walk on Water", "Drowning on Dry Land" and "Some Kind of Miracle").[53]

Sights

The Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden is located in Arcadia across from the Santa Anita mall and racetrack. It is a popular attraction, especially for the flock of peafowl that inhabit the grounds and neighborhood near the arboretum. The peafowl are a remainder of the former Baldwin ranch. The peafowl were originally introduced to help Baldwin control the snakes and snails on his farm but they have since gone wild. They are considered an attraction to some residents and a nuisance to others due to their loud cries and the droppings they leave on residents' properties.[42][56][57] The Arcadia Festival of Bands is a popular local yearly event.